A recent survey shows a significant majority of residents approve of permitting cannabis retailers in unincorporated Lewis County.
Lewis County Community Development Director Mindy Brooks presented the findings of a recent online survey to the Lewis County Board of Commissioners on Monday.
The survey, which was available on the county website and social media pages, found that 64% of the approximately 1,200 people who responded approved of allowing cannabis retailers to set up shop in unincorporated parts of the county.
Lewis County opened the survey earlier on Wednesday, March 4, and left it open for two weeks through Wednesday, March 18. County staff sent out a news release announcing the poll's opening, inviting interested residents to participate through the community development website.
The poll specifically asked residents if they approve of cannabis retail in Lewis County.
“Lewis County is considering allowing cannabis retail, which would result in new tax revenue from state-licensed local businesses,” stated the survey. “Do you support allowing cannabis retail in Lewis County?”
The survey allowed residents to respond with “yes,” “no” or “undecided” and required residents to include their ZIP code to identify which part of the county they represented.
The results showed 64% of participants supported the move while 34% were opposed and 2% were undecided. The survey reached 1,203 people, with 31 providing ZIP codes outside of Lewis County.
A readout of the results of the survey assembled by Brooks also split the tally by the county’s legislative districts and showed that a majority of residents in all three districts approved of permitting cannabis retail in the county’s unincorporated areas.
District 1, which represents the northwest part of the county including Centralia and parts of northern Chehalis, and District 3, which represents the most rural parts of the county from Vader to Packwood, showed overwhelming support.
While exact numbers were not available, graphs showed support in both districts floating between two thirds and three quarters of respondents.
Residents of District 2, which covers most of Chehalis and Winlock and all of Napavine, Adna and Pe Ell, showed a more narrow majority just above 50%. In total, 190 individuals with District 1 ZIP codes participated, 464 with District 2 ZIP codes participated and 518 with District 3 ZIP codes participated.
According to Brooks, the board of commissioners directed her department to develop a package of county codes that would allow for cannabis retail in unincorporated parts of Lewis County. That begins a long process of county staff developing the code and presenting it to the county planning commission.
Once presented to the commission, its members will hold workshops discussing the new codes, including public hearings likely to be scheduled sometime in the next two months. After that, the planning commission will make a recommendation to the Board of Lewis County Commissioners, which can make a final decision on the codes at that time.
An original presentation from Brooks to the commissioners on ideas for county codes proposed only allowing the retailers in certain zoning areas, among other restrictions. She predicted those rules would allow for six or seven new cannabis retailers across the county if approved.
The county first began the process of considering allowing for cannabis retail in unincorporated Lewis County on Monday, March 2. During a county manager’s meeting, staff proposed the move as a possible part of the solution to the county’s budget woes.
Allowing for and hosting at least one retail cannabis shop in unincorporated Lewis County would allow the county to access a share of revenues from a statewide cannabis retail tax that is already collected by the state government.
Some municipalities in Lewis County — Centralia, Chehalis, Winlock and Toledo — already have permitted cannabis retail shops and can benefit from state cannabis retail tax revenues. However, Lewis County is one of just six counties in the state that prohibit cannabis retail in their unincorporated areas. The others are Yakima, Klickitat, Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties.
For previous reporting by The Chronicle on the possibility of retail cannabis coming to unincorporated Lewis County, visit https://tinyurl.com/yb9wnjc8.
